TMAE Summit 2025Marking to the Same Beat: Aligning In-House Trademark Teams with Other Departments
Alt Legal Team | April 26, 2025
At the TMAE Summit on September 16-17, 2025, Kara Fielder (Senior IP Manager at Worldpay) will moderate a panel discsussion with Keyonn Pope (Partner, Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila) and Tara Dressler (Senior Director for Trademarks at System Administration in the Office of University Counsel), “Marking to the Same Beat: Aligning In-House Trademark Teams with Other Departments.”
Effective cross‑functional collaboration is the new frontier for trademark administrators—partnering with regulatory, marketing, and non‑IP teams has become essential to keep brands compliant and competitive. Because aligning across business units reduces risk and accelerates projects, administrators must develop skills beyond filings.
In this session, Kara will lead Keyonn and Tara as they outline the core competencies trademark administrators will need to act as strategic connectors across their organizations. Attendees will learn how to:
- Foster partnerships with regulatory teams to ensure compliance
- Align marketing initiatives with trademark strategy and brand goals
- Collaborate with non‑IP teams for end‑to‑end project management
- Develop cross‑functional insight to become trusted business advisors
- Enhance communication and teamwork across diverse stakeholder groups
Learn more and register for the TMAE Summit here.
Speakers
Kara Fielder
, Senior IP Manager at Worldpay
Kara Fielder is the Senior IP Manager at Worldpay, LLC. With 20+ years of experience in the legal field, Kara has extensive experience in the area of trademark administration. Prior to her current role, Kara was the Global IP Manager at The Hershey Company. At Hershey, in addition to managing the company’s large global trademark portfolio, Kara managed Hershey’s IP paralegals, docketing team, outside counsel, and vendors. She was also a key business partner to Hershey’s commercial, regulatory, design, and innovation teams. Kara is actively involved with the International Trademark Association (INTA) and is currently serving as the Chair of INTA’s Trademark Administrators Committee. She also serves as an Advisory Board member of Corsearch.
Keyonn Pope, Partner, Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila
A tech-savvy litigator and business-minded advisor, Keyonn Pope helps clients navigate complex and high-stakes issues involving intellectual property, media and entertainment, and a range of commercial disputes. Clients across multiple industries rely on Keyonn to represent their brands in bet-the-company patent and trademark litigation and to help them develop and implement the strategies that protect their key technologies, domain names, product licenses, business processes, and more. With a deep technical background as an electrical engineer for a major manufacturing company and experience performing under pressure as both a student-athlete and musician, he has a unique ability to explain complicated subjects clearly and persuasively, which has enabled him to achieve favorable results for his clients even in the most challenging circumstances. Clients value Keyonn’s outstanding communication, proactive approach, and leadership skills, which balance an engineer’s attention to detail with a competitor and performer’s focus on achieving success. Though his practice is rooted in his work as an intellectual property litigator, clients routinely turn to him for guidance and counsel on a wide range of matters. Keyonn is a Chicago-based Partner and firmwide Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice Team.
Tara Dressler, Senior Director for Trademarks at System Administration in the Office of University Counsel
Tara Dressler serves as the Senior Director for Trademarks at System Administration in the Office of University Counsel. Ms. Dressler has been with the University since September 2007, where she had held the position of IP Manager for the Technology Transfer Office. Prior to joining the University, Ms. Dressler worked as a paralegal in Washington, D.C. Ms. Dressler’s legal experience has been focused on Intellectual Property and she holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Penn State University, as well as a Bachelor of Science Degree in Paralegal Studies from the University of Maryland.